One of Trump's top priorities for 2018 is to slash the Dodd-Frank protections that safeguard against the risky gambling and speculation that led to the Wall Street economic crash and the bank bailouts.

A prominent political donor demanded that the GOP pass legislation to restrict access to guns, and vowed not to contribute to any candidates or electioneering groups that did not support a ban on the sale of military-style firearms to civilians.

Although the US has no exact counterpart, some countries have taken steps that can provide a window into what successful gun control looks like. Japan, a country of 127 million people and rarely more than 10 yearly gun deaths, is one such country.